Keynote 2018

The keynote at this years AREA41 will be held by Costin G. Raiu, Director of the Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) at Kaspersky Lab

We have started to notify the other speakers and will update the agenda as soon as we have all their details. We are excited and hope you will enjoy all the different talks as well.

A note from DEFCON Switzerland

In 2014 we conducted the first Area41 conference with more than 350 participants. The conference is a direct successor to the hashdays conference, which we started in 2010.

Since the interest has been growing we had to make a few adjustments. We changed our location running the conference in the heart of Zurich, which makes it very easy for our international guests to join us quickly and without hassle. After we sold out hashdays in 2012, we were looking for a location that can provide the cozy comfort of the Radisson Blu in Lucerne, but provide more space and opportunities for our guests. We will be able to host more guests at a better price and we have great options for accommodation nearby.

Secondly and more prominently, we are retiring the name hashdays. While we are very, very (!) enthusiastic about our new location and looking forward to take things to a new level, we feel that hashdays belonged to Lucerne and to the specific atmosphere we created there. We will keep the hashdays brand alive by continuing to provide all archived materials, such as videos, presentations and notes available, but we decided to name our Zurich conference Area41, a name that represents our close association to DC4131, the local Swiss DEFCON group. It should also make things a little bit easier for all of you who got funny questions about the word 'hash' on your expense report...

At this point, that's about it. Please feel free to ask questions on Twitter or via E-Mail.

Thanks for reading. We hope to welcome you in Zurich soon. You'll hear from us soon!